re: "Ambassadors for Atlantis"

Andrew Stuttaford at The Corner ("a web-leading source of real-time conservative opinion") relays a story that all diplomats should become familiar with.

What were the "Ambassadors for Atlantis":

"That’s the evocative term used in this post by Edward Lucas on the Economist’s Eastern Approaches blog to describe those exiled Baltic diplomats who flew the flag for their countries’ independendence throughout the long Soviet occupation"

Money quote:

"Sometimes, justice prevails."

From about 1933 until the end of the Cold War, there are some shining exemplars of diplomats and consuls who should be held as role models and heroes for the rest of us latecomers. The surviving diplomatic corps of the Baltic states provided a significant slice of them.

TE - Madonna and no child. International adoptions are not always for the best.

The Economist


Madonna and no child. International adoptions are not always for the best.

Apr 4th 2009


From Economist.com


MADONNA seems like a person used to getting her own way. So the pop star must have been dismayed when a court in Malawi refused to her request to adopt a three-year-old girl, Chifundo James. A judge ruled on Friday April 3rd that the adoption of Chifundo could not go ahead because Madonna had not fulfilled residency requirements. The last time Madonna tried to adopt a Malawian child she met with more success and a heap of criticism.

Read the whole article here.